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Bill would snag progress on clean energy

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Friday May 16, 2014 5:28 AM

I concur with Thomas Suddes’ May 11 op-ed column “Energy-standards bill will come back to bite
Kasich.” I, too, was alarmed to learn of Gov. John Kasich’s endorsement of Senate Bill 310.

As a professor of physics at Ohio State University who has written comprehensively on energy
issues, I can assure readers that Senate Bill 310 will not lead to energy policy informed by “
science and evidence” and “diverse perspectives” as state Sen. Troy Balderson, R-Zanesville,
promised in an April 12 op-ed. The version of Senate Bill 310 passed by the Ohio Senate combines
previously failed attempts by utilities and fossil-fuel interests to mandate an end to Ohio’s
progress on clean energy.

I am proud of the fact that Ohio State University is one of the top 50 users of renewable energy
in the nation. The university is expected to save $1 million a year by purchasing electricity from
the Blue Creek Wind Farm, built to help achieve Ohio’s renewable-energy requirement of 12.5 percent
by 2025.

Individual Ohio residents have saved money from the renewable mandate as well. The simple fact
is clean energy is working for Ohio, and the legislation will only harm our economy, environment
and public health.